Bison Herd Cut By 2,000 Over Winter About 1,500 Left In Yellowstone After Shootings, Harsh Weather

Sat., May 3, 1997

Associated Press

Only about 1,500 bison remain in Yellowstone National Park after an extremely harsh winter aggravated by intentional destruction of animals to protect domestic stock against brucellosis.

Park officials estimate that the two combined to eliminate 2,000 bison since November.

Park biologist Wayne Brewster told the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee that about 1,100 bison were shot by the Montana Department of Livestock or shipped to slaughter by Montana and the National Park Service under an interim plan to protect cattle from the disease that causes cows to abort.

Brewster also said the harsh winter, which brought the park some of the heaviest snows on record, apparently caused the death of another 900 bison.

“This winter wasn’t fun for anybody,” said John Mundinger of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The interim bison control plan was supposed to have been reconsidered after about 600 bison were shot or sent to slaughter, he said, but state and federal officials could find no room for any agreement.

“We didn’t sit down to talk,” Mundinger said. “We sat down to yell and scream at each other.”

He said an environmental assessment being developed by the Park Service and the state of Montana should help prevent further controversy.

At the same time, the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin reviewing Wyoming’s brucellosis management program next week.

Wyoming’s livestock industry is considered brucellosis-free now, but a finding that state management practices are deficient and the state’s reaction to such a finding could change that, the service’s regional director, Robert Nervig, said.

Wyoming State Veterinarian Don Bosman said the review was sought in an attempt to reassure other states worried about brucellosis.

“The fact that Wyoming has agreed to a station review has kept probably 15 or 20 states from imposing testing requirements,” said Idaho State Veterinarian Don Hillman.